Fool, it was the first Byrds song ever released. It couldn't possibly be a generic Byrds song. And they adopted a much more country rock sound in the late sixties, so, no, all their songs don't sound like that.

Any list without Watchtower and Its Alright Ma in the top ten fails in my opinion.

I don't think I insult those songs by placing them where I did. Obviously they'd be top 10 for most artists - Watchtower for example is very clearly Hendrix' best record imo. Dylan just has a deeper catalogue than basically anyone else who's ever recorded music. The only artists anywhere near his level either died young, broke up, or should have done one of those two things decades ago (Stones).

Five Blood on the Tracks tracks were recorded in New York, five in Minneapolis three months later. The Minnesota cuts (Tangled Up in Blue, You're a Big Girl Now, Idiot Wind, Lily et al, and If You See Her Say Hello) are transcendent. The NY songs range from pedestrian to straight-up boring.

Shelter from the Storm is certainly more than pedestrian, and I'd argue Simple Twist of Fate and Buckets of Rain are, as well.

But yeah, the absolute best songs were re-recorded. Who knows what happened? Maybe he went forward in time, saw the existence of Michelle Bachmann and Ryan Seacrest, and knew we deserved a better distraction than he was prepared to give us. That would certainly explain Idiot Wind, if nothing else.

The treatment misses what has always struck me about that song, which is the singer’s irritation and anger hidden behind his pose that he’s tough and doing just fine. That tension—the half-hidden sorrow—makes the song interesting. Making it all woe goes too far.

DigitalDreamDoor Forum is one part of a music and movie list website whose owner has given its visitors
the privilege to discuss music and movies, and has no control and cannot in any way be held liable over
how, or by whom this board is used. If you read or see anything inappropriate that has been posted,
contact webmaster@digitaldreamdoor.com. Comments in the forum are reviewed before list updates.
Topics include rock music, metal, rap, hip-hop, blues, jazz, songs, albums, guitar, drums, musicians...